Having a Ball
by Gohan Roxas
Summary: Cloud and Zack, two ordinary guys, get invited to a big ball. One problem, though: they're flat broke. CloTi and Zerith. Rated K for the hell of it.
1. Invitations

_**So I wrote this fanfic a while back, and I've decided to put it up now. Hope you guys like it!**_

_Zack Fair,_

_You are cordially invited to the 7__th__ Annual Shinra Ball._

_The event will take place at President Shinra's new mansion off LOVELESS Avenue._

_Dress code is formal, masks are required._

_Regards,_

_Rufus Shinra, Vice-President of Shinra._

Zack stared at the invitation in his hand. He couldn't believe it. Him, a regular guy, had been invited to the Shinra Ball. _The Shinra Ball!_

There was a knock at the door.

"It's open!" Zack shouted.

A tall blonde stepped through the door. He had bright blue eyes, and seemed strangely dejected. He had a slip of paper in his right hand.

"What's up, Cloud?" Zack asked his friend.

Cloud said nothing. He just handed his slip of paper to Zack.

Zack read it:

_Cloud Strife,_

_You are cordially invited to the 7__th__ Annual Shinra Ball._

_The event will take place at President Shinra's new mansion off LOVELESS Avenue._

_Dress code is formal, masks are required._

_Regards,_

_Rufus Shinra, Vice-President of Shinra._

"You got invited too?" Zack yelled excitedly.

"Yeah…" Cloud murmured. "But…"

"But what?"

"…"

Zack stood up and crossed his arms. "Come on, spit it out!"

"I… don't have a suit _or _a mask."

Zack laughed. "Neither do I, but according to this," he handed back Cloud's invitation, "we've still got about a week to find something to wear."

"But," Cloud protested, "we're flat broke."

"So? We'll just take some odd jobs to get some gil."

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "That's still not gonna be enough to get a suit and mask for the both of us."

"Trust me, Cloud."

Cloud facepalmed. He hated it when Zack said that. It usually meant he had a hare-brained scheme in the works.

And he did.

_**Wow. I didn't realise how short this chapter was. Anyway, please review!**_


	2. Don't See That Very Often

_**Okay, so this chapter's fairly short too, but they get longer. This is mainly setting a scene.**_

"Come on, Cloud! Keep up the pace!" Zack said loudly to his trailing friend.

Cloud growled. He'd been pulling this stupid flower cart for about two hours while Zack walked in front of him, yelling out, "Flowers for sale! 20 gil a piece! All proceeds go to a worthy cause!"

"Worthy cause?" Cloud had asked.

"Well, they're donating to the 'Get Cloud and Zack to the Shinra Ball Foundation'," Zack replied, a sincere look on his face.

The blonde just laughed.

Now, though, there was nothing to laugh about. No-one had bought any flowers. At all. Zack's sales pitch was failing miserably.

"Excuse me?" a red-headed girl asked Cloud.

"Hm?" Cloud stopped pulling the cart. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry, it's just… Two guys selling flowers? Now there's something you don't see every day." She giggled.

"It was his idea," he replied sourly, pointing at Zack with his head.

"Why?"

"Well, we both got invited to the Shinra Ball, but we can't afford any fancy clothes."

"Really?"

"Yep!" Zack shouted. The sound made Cloud jump. "You want some flowers? It'd really help us out!"

"Alright," the girl replied, "I'll take ten."

"_Ten?_" Cloud and Zack asked, shocked.

"Yeah, ten."

"Uh…" Zack floundered, "okay… That'll be 200 gil… I guess…"

"Here," she said simply, handing over some gil.

Zack counted it quickly. "But… there's 500 gil here!"

"Keep the change."

Zack's jaw dropped as the girl grabbed ten flowers from the cart.

"Oh, by the way," she said, "my name's Cissnei. And I got invited to the Ball too. Maybe I'll see you there." She giggled cheekily. Then she just walked away.

Both Cloud and Zack stared after her, dumbfounded. Finally Cloud spoke up. "Did we just make a 300 gil profit on ten overpriced flowers?" he asked.

"Yes," Zack replied, "yes we did."

_**Whaddya think? Let me know in your REVIEW.**_


	3. A Close Encounter

_**I promised longer chapters, so here's one. Not a whole lot longer, but still…**_

Buoyed by their slightly odd encounter with Cissnei, Zack and Cloud moved their flower-selling scheme to LOVELESS Avenue, near where the Ball was going to be held.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Cloud asked.

"Am I sure what is a good idea?" Zack replied.

"You know… Selling these flowers here."

"Of course it's a good idea, Cloud. After all, it's my idea, so how can it fail?"

_Quite easily_, Cloud thought.

Ahead of them, two girls and three men were walking. One of the girls was a brunette, with a pink ribbon in her long hair. The dress she wore was a dark pink, so dark it was almost red. Her eyes were a bright green, the colour of the leaves of a healthy tree.

The other girl had darker hair and wore a simple white top and a black skirt. Her eyes were brown, but they seemed to blaze with a fiery determination. She was… Well, let us say she would have had trouble sleeping on her chest.

Two of the men wore simple black suits and sunglasses, and trailed behind the girls and the third man. One was bald, with a well-trimmed beard, and numerous piercings in his ear. The other had red hair, which went down into a long ponytail. He had red marks underneath his eyes, and he looked almost on the verge of bursting into laughter.

The third man wore a white suit and jacket. He had well-looked-after blonde hair, and he seemed to take great pride in that fact. Overall, he seemed quite full of himself.

The group nearly ran into Zack. They seemed to have been paying no attention to the world around them.

"Sorry!" Zack apologised.

"Get out of my way, you idiot!" the self-important man snapped.

"Calm down, Rufus," the brunette chastised him. "We weren't looking where we were going, so it's our fault."

"That's right," the other girl agreed. "We should be the ones apologising, not them."

Meanwhile, Zack had been poleaxed by the mention of the man's name. "R-r-r…" he stammered. "Rufus? As in Rufus _Shinra_?"

"Indeed," Rufus replied, somewhat more civil than before, but Cloud still didn't like his attitude.

"Wow…"

"So," the brunette interrupted Zack's 'fanboying', "what are you two doing?"

"We're selling flowers! Usually 20 gil each, but since you're a friend of Mr Shinra's, I'll give them to you for 5 gil a pop."

The brunette giggled. "Well," she said playfully, "I _do_ like flowers. What about you, Tifa?" she asked the other girl.

"Yeah, they're okay, I guess. But you like them more, right, Aerith?"

"Yeah… yeah I do." She laughed again.

"Well in that case," Shinra resolved, "I'll take them all."

Zack stared. "I'm sorry?"

"All of them. I'll buy them all." He pulled out a chequebook. "Reno, Rude," he said to the other two men, "one of you get me a pen."

The red-headed one was faster than the other, taking a ballpoint pen from his suit pocket. The bald one grumbled a bit, but said nothing.

"Thank you, Reno," Shinra said. Taking the pen, he wrote in the chequebook, ripped off a page and handed it to Zack. "I'm sure this will be enough."

Cloud leaned over Zack's shoulder and gasped excitedly at the amount that was written on the cheque.

"Thank you very much, sir!" Zack said, amazed.

Shinra said nothing. He indicated to Reno and Rude to grab the cart and move on. The two looked at each other.

"I gave him the pen, Rude, so you pull the cart," Reno ordered.

Rude glared at him.

"Hey, it's not my fault if you're a slow-ass," Reno laughed.

Rude just walked towards the cart, flipping the bird at Reno as he passed him.

All this did was make Reno laugh even harder.

Aerith walked over to Rude, slipping him a piece of paper. He looked at it briefly, then handed it to a bewildered Cloud.

As Shinra and his two bodyguards went off, the two girls turned to Cloud and Zack. "So…" the one named Aerith said to Zack, "what's your name?"

"Zack Fair at your service, ma'am," was the reply.

"What about you?" Tifa asked Cloud.

"Um…" Cloud murmured, embarrassed. "I'm…"

"This," Zack interrupted him, wrapping his arm around his friend's neck, "is Cloud Strife."

"Okay, then. See ya!" Aerith smiled. Then she and Tifa went off, Aerith clinging to Tifa's hand and skipping like an excited little girl.

"Well," Zack said smugly, "that went well."

"Shut up," Cloud told him.

_**Love it or loathe it? Tell me in a REVIEW.**_


	4. I Don't Feel Like Dancing

_**Time to party! Haha. And I'm so glad that you guys like this story. I mean it.**_

"Here we go…" Zack said nervously as he looked at the Shinra mansion. "I really hope I don't make an idiot of myself after I get in there."

"Count yourself lucky," Cloud deadpanned. "I'm gonna make an idiot of myself just by walking up to the door."

"Hey, it's not that bad."  
"Yes it is. I am wearing a mask that makes me look like a human-chocobo hybrid. A human. Chocobo. Hybrid."

"Well, your hair matches it, and mine doesn't. I mean, come on, I couldn't wear that mask. I'd look like a moron."

"I hate you."

The two of them wore simple black suits with white shirts. Zack had a normal black tie, while Cloud's was a black bow tie. Their masks, as Zack had mentioned, matched their hair. Zack's was a basic black mask, while Cloud's did indeed resemble the feathered face of a chocobo. It even had a beak.

"Let's get this over with," Cloud murmured.

"After you, Boko," Zack grinned.

"Screw you."

The ballroom was exquisite. Flowers covered every wall, and the room was filled with men and women dressed extravagantly, with masks covering their faces.

"Cool," was all Zack said.

Two masked men walked over to them, with two giggling women in tow. "Please…" one of them panted, "dance with her. I…am running…out of…breath…"

"Sure thing," Zack agreed. "What about you, Cloud?"

"Uh, I'm not much of a dancer."

"Okay, suit yourself. You know, you'll never get a girl if you act like that all the time." Then he went off to dance with the woman, who was still laughing giddily.

For the first time, Cloud was glad he was wearing his stupid chocobo mask. At least it hid his blush. He went off to sit near the punch bowl, watching Zack dance with the over-excited woman.

"You not into dancing?" a woman's voice asked him.

Cloud turned. The one who had spoken wore a black dress, with sequins adorning it. Her mask was black and feathered, but didn't look as ridiculous as his did. Her eyes were a curiously familiar brown.

"Nah," Cloud replied. "So I guess I'm gonna have a fun night."

The woman laughed at his somewhat lame joke. She grabbed a chair and sat next to him.

"Same with me," she said. "Where I grew up, dancing wasn't a major thing."

"Oh yeah? Where's that?"

"Nibelheim," was the reply.

"No way!" Cloud said, stunned.

"What?"

"I grew up in Nibelheim too."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Well, didn't see that coming." She rested her hand on his lap. Eager to change the subject, Cloud pointed at the flowers on the wall. "Those are nice," he stammered.

The woman nodded. "Rufus bought them from some street vendors the other day."

"Really?" Cloud asked. "Did you catch their names?"

"Well, I don't remember one of them, but I remember the one who was pulling the cart."

"And that was?" Cloud had a feeling he knew already, but he wanted to make sure.

"I think it was Cloud."

Cloud nodded, feigning a thoughtful look. "That's a weird name."

"Hey!" the woman protested. "I happen to think that's a very nice name."

He shrugged. "Whatever." He looked back to the dance floor, but couldn't see Zack and his bubbly dance partner. While he did that, he noticed in the corner of his eye that the woman he was sitting next to, who he was sure now was Tifa, was staring at him.

"What?" he asked her.

"It's just…" she mused, "I think I've seen that hair somewhere before."

Cloud panicked. His mask had been a source of anonymity to him, and that was all that had given him the confidence to talk to her. If she recognised him, all his confidence would probably vanish.

"You know, you look kinda similar to that Cloud guy I was talking about before."

"Really?" he asked nervously. "And is that a good thing?"

"Yes. I happened to think that Cloud was kinda cute."

Cloud blushed again. "Uh…" he floundered.

"Just give it up, Cloud. I know it's you."

_Busted_, Cloud thought. But outside, he said, "Well, Tifa, _I _know it's _you_."

She froze. Then, in a composed voice, she said, "Okay then, on 'three', we both take our masks off. Okay?"

"Okay."

"One…two…three!"

Sure enough, Cloud and Tifa revealed themselves to each other at the same time. They stared at each other for a while. Then, completely out of nowhere, Tifa grabbed the back of his head and kissed him.

Cloud was sure that he could see Zack yelling "Boo-yah!" and punching the air.

_**Hehehe, jumping right into the CloTi there.**_

_**Love it? Loathe it? Tell me in a REVIEW.**_


	5. No More Heroes

_**Continuing on! Wow, you guys really like this story. I'm a tad surprised.**_

As it turned out, though, Zack was yelling "Hi-yah!" and punching the heir…of the Shinra company.

The reason that Zack had vanished from the dance floor was because he'd spotted a mask-less, obviously-drunk Rufus Shinra making improper suggestions to a brown-haired girl in a pink dress.

"Hey!" Zack yelled.

"Wha' is it?" Shinra slurred.

"I think it's kinda obvious, isn't it?"

"Na really. I'm a little drunk, so you'll hafta explain it to me."

"The lady obviously doesn't want to go anywhere with you, so lay off."

Shinra's drink-addled face turned hard. "Do you know who I am? I am Rufus Shinra, Hero of Midgar!"

"Actually," Zack corrected him, "you're Rufus Shinra, Major Asshole." Then he punched him. Shinra went down and groaned for a bit, his hands on his now-broken nose.

"You're gonna pay for that," Rude said menacingly.

Below him, Shinra had started to snore.

Reno laughed. "Forget it, Rude. He had it coming to him."

Rude just grunted. Bending to pick up Shinra from the ground, he glared at Zack, but walked away, his sleeping boss slung over his shoulder.

Reno was still laughing, patting Zack on the shoulder. "Not a bad punch, man. I don't even think Rude could have done better!"

Zack smiled shyly. "Thanks."

Reno walked off in the same direction Rude and Shinra had been travelling, patting a guest on her bottom as he passed. She growled at him, but he just laughed and walked on.

The girl who Shinra had been harassing turned to Zack. "Thank you for that."

Zack shrugged. "It was nothing. Just call me the Phantom of the Ballroom, at your service!" (**A/N: **_Pop culture references FTW._)

The girl's mouth formed a surprised 'O'.

Zack looked at her, confused. "What's up?"

"Is your name Zack, by any chance?"

"Yes. Why? Have we met?"

"Yeah, a couple of days ago. You and your friend were selling flowers."

Zack looked at her closely, enough to make the girl blush. "Aerith?"

"Yeah!" she grinned. "That's me!"

"Wow. I didn't recognise you."

"Well," Aerith replied, taking off her pink mask, "that was because I was wearing this."

_Duh_, Zack thought. _What a stupid thing to say, Zack._

Aerith pulled off his mask, looking thoughtfully into his blue eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just… thinking of a way to pay you back for what you did. Hmm… Oh! I know! How about one date?" she asked, her finger pointing upwards.

"Huh?"

"As payment for you rescuing me, we go on a date. How about it?"

Zack grinned. "Sounds good to me!"

_**That's it for now! Final chapter should be going up tomorrow. Tell me what you think of this chapter in your REVIEW.**_


	6. Happy Endings

_**A miniscule chapter to end it. Sorry I couldn't make it any longer.**_

"Zack!" Cloud shouted. Zack turned. The blonde's bow tie was undone, as were the first two or three buttons on his shirt. His usually perfectly spiky hair was ruffled and all over the place. Zack swore he saw a lipstick mark on Cloud's collar. Not only that, there was what looked suspiciously like a hickey on his neck.

"What, did you get lucky or something?" Zack asked cheekily.

"Yeah," Cloud replied, "but not in the sense you're thinking of. You remember that girl from the other day? Tifa?"

Zack nodded.

"Well, turns out she thought I was cute." He modestly looked down at himself. "This is from when she found out she was talking to me." He grinned.

"Nice one!" Zack laughed.

"I see you found him," Cloud said then, nodding to Aerith.

"Yeah, I did. Thanks to you."  
"Am I missing something here?" Zack asked them.

"Well, when Shinra bought all our flowers, Aerith had that big bald guy give me her phone number," Cloud explained. "I called her yesterday and told her that you'd be here. She wanted to get your attention, but wasn't sure how to do it. I told her to get some guy drunk, and, since she's a good-looking girl, he'd probably make all kinds of rude suggestions to her."

"I choked on that a bit," Aerith chimed in.

"But I explained to her that if she did that, you were bound to see it and come running to the rescue. You _do _have a thing for damsels in distress, after all." He smirked.

Zack's face fell melodramatically. "Am I that obvious?"

"Yes," Aerith and Cloud said in unison.

Zack grinned at them, and they laughed.

_**This is probably the crappiest ending I've ever done.**_


End file.
